Man I just found this thread and it's incredible .. thank you so much for posting .. I'm a big boater and run off shore a lot .. this may have to be in the works for the future.. amazing thread thanks

This is something that I want to do in the future. I just bought my boat, and am working on repairing it, so it's going to bit, but I can't wait.

Thanks for this thread.

Thanks for your additions and discussion. Sounds like you know this engine pretty well !

I gained familiarity with this engine early on. Pretrial preparations.

Back when I purchased her, I reworked a few engine issues. The seals on the raw water cooling pump were dripping at the tell tale slot indicating a worn/bad seal. I obtained a new pump as well as the seal replacement kit. My intent was to swap pump and replace seals and bearings in the old one and keep it on board as a spare.

That plan got complicated when one of the bronze bolts on the pump faceplate sheared off. That is a weak point of manufacture/design. Eventually - after removing pump unit- I drilled out the broken off bolt and brazed and recapped the bolt hole. However, NOW WITH STAINLESS ! I installed the new pump which is still the one on the engine. I used a drift and pressed in the new bearings and seals and gave that pump onboard as a backup. I carry 4 additional impeller/gasket/lube kits as well.

I also have an additional spare raw water pump assembly for the westerbeke generator and 3 extra impeller sets. I found and installed bolts with big knurled tops on them - Stainless - so that now I can pull off the faceplate to replace an impeller without tools. Pretty slick.

I mentioned earlier and you also pointed out how ridiculous the volvo idea of sealing gasket/ring/brackets thingies is ! When purchased there was a raw water dribble from entrance into oil cooler and also out of the heat exchanger. Those copper tunbes used on volvos would be so much simpler if they were just hose and screw clamps. Anyway...agree...tricky to get a good seal on the copper tube. Same copper tubing above and below the raw water pump as well. Kind of a pain.

I replaced the anodes just after purchase also. The previous owner said he had been told this engine had no anodes. Obviously he had not replaced any of them. The one under the oil cooler/heat exchanger was almost totally gone but had a stub remaining. I reached a finger in up inside the oil cooler and pulled out several decent sized fragments from previous anodes that had crumbled off and were just laying there...obviously the previous to the previous owner HAD replaced anodes a couple times.

The reduction gear (transmission) is MS3C and I found the bolt for and installed an anode there after purchase...not the first ever anode installed but anode was almost completely eroded.

Learned a lot about my engine in those months after buying and in the prep tear prior to the Loop.

Thanks for sharing your experience with the TMD30A ! My ears/eyes are open for any other input !

Straight shaft. 1 3/8 inch.

PSS Dripless shaft seal.

Dinghy is a rigid fiberglass hull inflatable (RIB) from west marine...model 310...outboard is a Mercury 6 hp 4 stroke.

No water maker. Have 180 gallons in two saddle tanks.

Yes sir ! I Assume you were able to follow my progress on Marine Traffic. Its a cool site. For folks who may not know...you can monitor commercial vessels anywhere in the world and can monitor any pleasure vessels worldwide which use AIS.

Left Thessalon this morning. Pretty sunny calm morning. Headed southwest threading between several islands .....across the invisible line marking the US/Canadian border...and down to Detour, Michigan.

Hailed marina, got tied up and powered up. Then time to clear customs.

Back in the day it required an in person boarding and could take quite some time. Much much quicker now. But still requires a "face to face" portion.

I used the ROAM app from Customs and Border Patrol. The CBP app requires you to fill in several pieces of information, take photos/captures of your Passport, provide boat registration info and you need to purchase a decal relating to border crossing.

Since I got the app and bought the required decal only 5 days ago and while obviously still on the boat in Canada, I do not physically have the decal that was mailed to my mailing address. However, you provide the payment tracking number instead and the process can be completed.

I submitted my arrival and the marina......and within 3 or 4 minutes I got a contact from CBP and initiated a video call/conference with a BP agent. Asked a few questions about length of time in Canada, about carrying produce fruits or vegetables, had to display my wife's and my own passport on the video call for confirmation....and done. Took about 5 minutes. Got two different confirmations from CBP...a text and an email within moments. Cleared back into US.

The thing I find crazy is that Canada has no charge for US citizens to come into the country but to reenter the US I had to pay $32 for a permit/decal to monitor boats coming and going into Canadian waters.

Time to spend a few days catching up on things and doing maintenance here in the marina..
....back in the USA

Agfencer98 said:

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This is something that I want to do in the future. I just bought my boat, and am working on repairing it, so it's going to bit, but I can't wait.

Thanks for this thread.

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You just obligated yourself to a boat-build thread!

Sure, if you're interested. I'm working late tonight for a music festival I'm putting on, but tomorrow, if I can kick this cold, I'll get it started.

1986 Post 43' sportfish. Purchased used with a busted window, bad port transmission (twin Detroit Diesels) and needing an entire interior redo,

Should make for a long thread, as I currently live about 5.5 hours from the boat until I can get it to run until I get it back up to me.

This is my favorite thread on TexAgs keep it going sir.

PS maybe let your wife get on here and show us her views of the trip.

Have a safe rest of your trip.

Appreciate your experience and viewpoints...having more data points is almost always helpful in the long run. Thanks.

Totally agree with keeping ethanol out of the engine. Only gas ever used has been and will be ethanol free.

PSS seal is indeed a vital component. With some difficulty I can get hands on it and have enough room to work on it. So I can inspect it fairly regularly. Whenever I do. I "burp" it to help make sure nothing foreign or gritty is between the stainless/carbon disc. Seals really well and has a huge lifespan rating of like 6 years . Compress and "feel" the bellows looking for any oxidation, cracks or rubber failure. Check set screw and clamp screws for tightness. Shaft and stainless collar are bonded.

Check the gear oil on weekly basis. Good clear oil....volvo recommends same as engine ...change out gear oil every other oil change so about every 200 hours. Never discolored or burnt for sure. Cables seem snug and shifting is crisp.

Great idea! That might help with convincing some of the wives what a great adventure the loop would be.

enjoying the reports

Hwy30East said:

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Great idea! That might help with convincing some of the wives what a great adventure the loop would be.

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It took me six or seven years to get my wife interested in doing the Loop. She wouldn't even step foot on a boat until early this year, and now she really likes it. I just had to stay patient and not push. I kept looking for ways to help her see how much fun it could be, and what finally worked was her seeing how much family and friends liked the idea and were wanting to come visit and even stay on the boat with us.

As mentioned earlier, we're hoping to start our Loop in the fall of '24. :-)

It's funny. I'm in Chicago for a conference and I've got my family with me. We were on a architectural boat tour last night and our guide talked about how you could go out of this river and into Lake Michigan and end up in the Gulf of Mexico and talked about the Loop for a couple of minutes.

I wanted to stand up and shout, "Hey! I know a couple who's doing it right now!!!" I felt like I knew someone famous.

You are. I saw your movie.

Many years ago I got the loop fever. Decided to start slow.
My wife was a definite no. I was determined to change her mind. Who wants to do this trip without your Girl of 40 years?
I bought a 30' house boat with plans to play on the Texas gulf coast up and down the intercostal.
I fell in love with Baffin Bay and the land cut.
Over 6 years I spent ~ 150 nights on her with to many guests to list. In the same time my wife spent maybe 8 nights on her.
It was a great adventure but it truly does take a special soul to deal with the many different challenges.
I do love hearing stories of those who are living the dream. Please keep up the reports.
Fair winds and following seas to you.

How is your wife with handling the lines and fenders going through locks? I think that would be the hardest part to sell my wife on.

And Hiway30east and aggieorbitalwelder..
Mentioned to her..... and Mrs Cool Breeze will give a few short comments.

Hi all. This is Mrs. Cool Breeze.
I wanted to do the loop but was very nervous because I had basically no boating skills. The thought of locking terrified me. - what if I screw up and wreck the boat? What if I don't get good at handling the lines/tying us securely and we float off/drift into a nearby boat?
And a million other fears.
Through this whole trip Jim has encouraged me, applauded my efforts, and been VERY patient with me. I expect many women would feel the same as me. Fearful/terrified of not coming up to snuff.

You can hire training captains to teach you the skills you need to be a competent boat handler. There are several on the AGLCA forum who are highly recommended.

I'm really enjoying the moving to a new location every day or 2 or 3. It'll be hard to have a dirt house that doesn't move. Lol.

With only a few short periods of travel the marinas have had laundry facilities so I could do clothes/sheets/towels. I brought $100 in rolled quarters to start off and for Canada I went to a bank and got 2 rolls of "loonies" ($1 coins). As it turned out I didn't need the Canadian coins but twice as the marinas had free laundry.

I liked traveling up the East Coast, except for Georgia and New Jersey - Jim can explain why, and traveling the Erie Canal and Trent-Severn was beautiful and enjoyable even though it's a lot of locks.

I am better addressing specific questions if you have them.

Hope this was of some benefit.

Many thanks to you mam. This board has a bunch of old men in it and it is nice to see things from another lens. Your comments are much welcomed here. Congrats on the trip and congrats on you two building life experiences together in a day and age where many have to have life only their way. Much respect for you both and thanks for all you both share. Happy times.

What a cool experience! I do hope you will document more in the thread as time goes on. My wife doesn't like boats so I'll never get to do this but am living vicariously through you!

Awesome thread.

I'll probably end up doing a trawler for Florida, Bahamas, and maybe a little further south.

My wife gets seasick easily so she'll be meeting me there.

Thanks for taking the time to document this and sharing. Very cool.

This thread is fantastic.

Travel day update

Left Detour Village marina Tuesday morning to head across Lake Huron south to Cheboygan County Marina.

I chose Tuesday because the weather forecast looked so favorable. I have always maintained that the really bad weather stories from boaters about the awful conditions and dramatic tales owe at least a significant amount of blame to the Captain who decided to travel on that day. Calm weather passages make for more boring stories but much more pleasant travel ! In these cases, boring is good !

Winds were very light and the previous couple days of waves laid down to almost glassy conditions. Ideal for a 30 plus mile open water crossing.

Huron has numerous shoals and areas requiring caution and some on this leg have established lighthouses to aid in navigation. Picturesque area.

Made pretty decent speed.....for an efficient trawler ...6.5 to 7 knots....7 to 8 mph....arrived Cheboygan and got tied up without issues.

Will hang out today as thunderstorms are predicted to pass through today. Will move up to Mackinaw City Thursday and plan to spend about a week.

Mackinaw Island is a bucket list kind of place for many. Huge old Grand Hotel. Entire island without cars. Bikes and horse carriages are the mode of transport. Scenic. Will take the ferry over from Mackinaw City on the mainland.

Its possible to dock on the island itself but is kinda crowded and the ferry wakes in the marina every 15 to 30 minutes gets tiresome so we are electing to stay on the mainland and daytrip over a couple times. Have to get our quotient of fudge after all.

Mackinaw City is a tourist destination in its own right so plenty to entertain us for a week. That plus some boat chores and provisioning before we continue south next week

A few pics....

This is cool AF.